Better Data Drives Growth

Why investing in better

business intelligence tools is
critical to your success
Instinct Meets Insight

Whats Inside
Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Seven Signs That Your Distribution Firm Needs a New BI System. . . . . . . . . 4

The Consequences of Legacy Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Is Your Current System Setting You Back?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Epicor Data Analytics: Reaching for New Levels of

Business Understanding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Executive Summary
According to CIO Magazine, business intelligence (BI) refers to a range of software applications that are used to analyze a companys
raw data and support the critically important function of business analytics.

Through such processes as data mining, analysis, querying, and reporting, a robust BI system can enable unprecedented new insights into a business and positively impact a
companys growth by helping management teams actively reduce costs, identify new opportunities, develop targeted strategies, and improve overall decision-makingeven
within companies that perceive themselves as successful and up-to-date.

Could your lack of a modern and powerful

BI system be affecting sales at your
distribution firm?

3 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Seven Signs That Your Distribution Firm

Needs a New BI System
If any of these situations applies to your business, your current sales analytics or ERP
system may be falling short of its potential, diminishing your ability to think and act
more strategically, meet and exceed sales targets, and outperform your competition.

1. Your business has lacked innovation and youre struggling to compete in todays tech-savvy environment
2. You know what your customers are buying, but not what they arent buying
3. Sales data is only available monthly and/or annually and only in a range of pre-determined formats
4. Sales data queries and requests for reports are typically made through IT personnel or another
indirect source
5. Your system is very sales-oriented and offers little or no reporting in such areas as inventory
or purchasing
6. It can take hours, days, or even weeks to run reports
7. Your companys ERP system hasnt been updated in many years

What you dont know about your business data may be impacting your operations. A robust BI system may be
the best investment you can make into your companys future.

4 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

The Consequences of
Legacy Systems
According to an annual survey by the National Association of
Electrical Distributors (NAED)1, 100% of distributor respondents
identified the need to ensure that data in our business system is
accurate and up to date as a top priority.

However, what companies arent discovering about their business and sales trendsat
the hands of an outdated sales analytics/ERP systemmight surprise them. The ERP
systems that many small and mid-sized companies use to collect, store, and manage
their companys range of data were built years ago, before the distribution markets
explosion into the digital age.

Fast-forward to the demands of modern business today and many of these

companiesoften family-owned and multi-generationalare now unable to
optimally support the requirements of the times.

As a result, their legacy systems are often slow to respond and difficult to retrieve
actionable data from. Its a shortfall which leaves users less than ideally positioned to
make strategic business decisions.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the focus of ERP systems was largely to allow users to easily
enter, record, and capture data, not necessarily to report it in ways that could enable
analysis and strategic decision-making at granular levels.

Today, the availability of powerful and easy-to implement BI systems has ushered in an
exciting new generation of data analytics and insight.

5 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Current data Buying trends and

Many legacy ERP systems were built to deliver month-
by-month and/or annual reporting, whereas newer
data-driven solutions enable users to investigate
trends for any period of time desiredmonths,
weeks, and days.
Speed of reporting
Reports used to take days or weeks to run and were
often based on the schedule and availability of the
IT personnel responsible for running them. Today,
reporting is instantaneous and easy. Modern systems
shift the effort of running reports to the more critical
activities of data analysis and business management.
Access of information
Modern systems and broad enable widespread and
reliable use from any computer or mobile device.
product mix
Older systems showed what customers were buying,
but not what they werent buying. With better BI,
users can identify all related products based on
purchase trends, identify new sales opportunities, and
correct less successful strategies.
Margin enrichment
When systems only show data on revenue and
bottom line sales, its easy to miss things like eroding
margins on individual sales. This leads to less effective
sales strategy. With the ability to drill down into
granular layers of data, salespeople can view margin
by customer and product in many different ways,
leading to better sales strategy and product mix
decisions for growth.

Deep discovery
While older systems had limited date ranges and
predetermined report formats which limited analysis,
modern BI systems are much more flexible and
granular. They allow users to configure any collection
of data they desire, and drill down to get the details
needed for making smarter business decisions.
And unlike most legacy software, todays users can
change their mind and request different types of
analyses without having to start over.

6 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Gross margin return on Dead and slow-movingstock

inventory investment
(GMROII)
Standard GMROII reports can limit the ability to
maximize turns and optimize profitable inventory
investment. BI systems give better visibility to the
inventory costs of specific products versus their
selling price. They also promote the sale of the most
profitable items for greater turn success.
Activity-based costing
for profitability
Static reports and inflexible analytic tools make it
difficult to identify all of the costs associated with a
product sale. Better, deeper analysis of customer and
product data identifies high-cost customers, vendors,
and reps. A new BI system enables companies to
manage out less-profitable customers and streamline
their business.
management
While your current solution might show whats
sold over a period of time, many systems arent
tied into purchasing, which makes it hard to see
the time and quantity of products sold. This causes
difficulty in identifying dead inventory. Newer BI
systems take both sales and purchasing activities
into consideration. This enables strategic decision
making around inventory performance, like special
promotions to recent buyers of dead or slow-moving
items, or opportunities for dialog with customers
who are no longer buying.

7 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Is Your Current System Setting You Back?

Consider this: how easily can you identify the following?

XXYour companys Top 10 products that havent sold in 90 days

XXCustomers with sales of more than $10,000 in the last fiscal
period but whose sales are declining month-to-month
XXCustomers whose sales are up but whose profits are down
XXActive customers not buying your Top 3 products
XXThe total value of slow-moving stock in each of your
branch locations

If you cant answer these questions within five minutes,

then its time to seek a better solution. Epicor can help.

8 | Driving Growth With Better Data

Instinct Meets Insight

Epicor Data Analytics: Reaching

for New Levels of
Business Understanding
As competition increases and margins narrow, businesses need sharper
tools and deeper understanding to support the business. And, the
tools must be fast, flexible, and cost-effective. Business analytics can
help you meet these objectives.

Epicor Data Analytics is a modern, cutting-edge business intelligence tool fully integrated
with Epicor Prophet 21the leading ERP solution designed solely for wholesale
distributors. Epicor Data Analytics drives more value from your business system with
unprecedented business insight to help you grow by reducing cost, identifying new
opportunities, supporting specific programs, and speeding decision-making.

An easy-to-learn, easy-to-use service, Epicor Data Analytics can quickly start contributing
to your business. Epicor Data Analytics helps you stay up-to-date with your
ever-changing business.

Discover your full potential with deeper insight into and understanding of your business
data, greater confidence in your management decisions, and more proactive control over
your companys growth and future.

Learn more about Epicor Data Analytics.

9 | Driving Growth With Better Data

About Epicor
Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth. We provide flexible, industry-
specific software that is designed around the needs of our manufacturing, distribution,
retail, and service industry customers. More than 40 years of experience with our
customers unique business processes and operational requirements is built into every
solutionin the cloud, hosted, or on premises. With a deep understanding of your
industry, Epicor solutions spur growth while managing complexity. The result is powerful
solutions that free your resources so you can grow your business. For more information,
connect with Epicor or visit www.epicor.com.

Contact us for more information on Epicor Products and Services

+1.800.999.6995 info@epicor.com www.epicor.com

Corporate Office Latin America and Caribbean Europe, Middle East and Africa Asia Australia and New Zealand
804 Las Cimas Parkway Blvd. Antonio L. Rodriguez #1882 Int. 104 No. 1 The Arena 238A Thomson Road #23-06 Suite 2 Level 8,
Austin, TX 78746 Plaza Central, Col. Santa Maria Downshire Way Novena Square Tower A 100 Pacific Highway
USA Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, CP 64650 Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1PU Singapore 307684 North Sydney, NSW 2060
Toll Free: +1.888.448.2636 Mexico United Kingdom Singapore Australia
Direct: +1.512.328.2300 Phone: +52.81.1551.7100 Phone: +44.1344.468468 Phone: +65.6333.8121 Phone: +61.2.9927.6200
Fax: +1.512.278.5590 Fax: +52.81.1551.7117 Fax: +44.1344.468010 Fax: +65.6333.8131 Fax: +61.2.9927.6298

The contents of this document expresses the opinions and views of Epicor Software Corporation and are for informational purposes only and are subject to change without notice. Epicor Software Corporation makes no guarantee, representations
or warranties with regard to the enclosed information and specifically disclaims, to the full extent of the law, any applicable implied warranties, such as fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, satisfactory quality or reasonable skill and care.
This document and its contents, including the viewpoints, dates and functional content expressed herein are believed to be accurate as of its date of publication, October 2016. The usage of any Epicor software shall be pursuant to the applicable end
user license agreement and the performance of any consulting services by Epicor personnel shall be pursuant to applicable standard services terms and conditions. Usage of the solution(s) described in this document with other Epicor software or third
party products may require the purchase of licenses for such other products. Epicor, the Epicor logo, and Prophet 21 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.
All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Copyright 2016 Epicor Software Corporation. All rights reserved.